At Tourism Vancouver, we never take the beauty of our backyard for granted.
To help Vancouver reach its goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020, we've assembled an internal Green Team to implement small-but-significant changes to the way we go about our daily business: double-sided printing, increased recycling, and tele-commuting, to name just a few.
But every year we're taking bigger strides down the path of sustainability.
Our most recent initiatives include:
Tourism Vancouver has partnered with BC Hydro to promote energy efficiency and energy conservation within the Vancouver tourism industry, with the goal of reducing consumption and profiling Vancouver as a leading sustainable tourism destination.
Together, BC Hydro and Tourism Vancouver have compiled a Conservation Library as a go-to resource for our members. It's full of energy-saving tips, information, and programs to help improve the bottom line of their businesses and reduce environmental impacts.
When it comes to energy consumption, we want to lower our standards.
You heard that right. We've partnered with BC Hydro and ETHOS BC to help lower the bar on acceptable energy consumption within the tourism industry. We want a commitment to energy conservation to become the "new normal" across the industry. We also want to challenge our members to look at other sustainability initiatives, including becoming carbon neutral, identifying new waste management practices and educating staff and the public on the awareness of all environmental issues.
How will we do it? Peer pressure!
We've invited recognized leaders in the hospitality business to take a conservation pledge. Once they're on board, we'll chronicle their efforts to "power down" and conserve energy.
Everyone needs role models. By sharing their experiences, our new Tourism Ambassadors will set an example for their industry peers and model conservation as a way of life.
In 2009, we were the first tourism marketing organization to commit to "greening" our corporate air travel by purchasing carbon offset credits through Uniglobe Vision Travel's Green Flight Program.
That means every time we travel for business-or bring others to visit us in Vancouver - we help support federally approved sustainable energy projects in western Canada.
And we offer meeting planners the same opportunity to offset the travel of their Vancouver-bound convention delegates.
When we have to print brochures and marketing materials, we favour Metropolitan Fine Printers, one of North America's most environmentally conscious printing companies. Metropolitan is one of the first commercial printers in Western Canada to obtain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and they are now a 100% Carbon Free Plant.
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